Sir Chen, your wife is missing!

Suddenly, an agile black shadow passed by under his feet. The shadow's eyes flashed a faint green light, and static electricity was generated when it rubbed against his trouser legs.

Looking back, she saw a black wild cat with fierce eyes standing in the bushes, staring at her. After screaming a few times, its nimble body leaped into the deeper darkness and merged into the wilderness.

"It's just a small problem. It's nothing to be afraid of."

As the smoke rose again, the spicy sweet taste spread in the mouth. Feng Qingyu became bolder and bolder, and continued to explore the source of the singing.

At this time, she had gradually left the manor.

The dark clouds were blown by the wind, covering the moon in the sky, and the brightness around them suddenly decreased a lot. Feng Qingyu accidentally stepped on a strange hard protrusion.

“Kala——”

The thing made a crisp sound when it was pressed, as if it was crushed.

"What the hell..."

Fortunately, I didn’t fall, otherwise I would have been covered in dirt.

Feng Qingyu thought so and focused the beam of the flashlight on the ground. The thing that was crushed was not a branch, but a piece of white bone, which looked like a human leg bone, and it was an adult male's.

The shape of the bones of wild animals would not be so straight, so it can basically be ruled out that they are animal bones.

It was not a good thing to find human bones in such a place. Judging from the degree of damage to the leg bone, it was not very old. She was not a forensic doctor, so she could not make an accurate judgment on this situation. She just felt a little uneasy.

No one can remain calm when discovering the bones of a dead person.

Then she found some scattered skeletons in the surrounding grass, and there were more than one.

Just as Feng Qingyu was struggling over whether to continue walking towards the strange church, the sound of the chorus came to his ears again through the night wind. This time the lyrics were clearer.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life…”

If you listen more carefully, it doesn't sound like singing, but more like chanting some scriptures or mantras.

Religious things are difficult to understand. Victoria is different from Lateran. There are not so many religious believers, and it is not a religious country. After all, only a minority of people have such beliefs in their hearts.

When we were still a few hundred meters away from the church, the surrounding roads became open and no longer overgrown with weeds. Someone had specially built a cement road. Although the technology was not as good as that of a professional team, it was at least easier to walk on than the previous road.

The bottoms of his boots were all muddy because of a heavy rain at around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. The bottoms of his trousers were also not spared, and were stained by rain from the wet bushes.

Feng Qingyu rolled up her trouser legs, revealing a section of her fair calves. There were several lumps on her legs from mosquito bites in the bushes, but she didn't have time to take care of them now. After all, she was more interested in the contents of the church.

The white Western-style building has become mottled with bricks and tiles due to the erosion of time, and the pure white exterior paint has long since peeled off, revealing large areas of gray or brown bricks.

The clock tower at the top has fallen into disrepair and the time-telling clock has long disappeared.

The contents outside are self-explanatory, so you don't need to spend too much time looking at it. It's just a small church, and the fun of visiting it may not be as good as the school festival in the East.

The church door was ajar, with a gap between the two brown wooden doors. The gap was very wide, about ten centimeters. Even without pushing the door open, one could see clearly what was going on inside.

A group of haggard believers formed a circle. A woman dressed as a nun sat in the middle, holding a scripture in her hand and asking the believers to recite with her.

Each believer held a blue candle in his hand, with the flame flickering.

The scene was quite strange.

It would be fine if the candle flame was orange-red, but I didn't expect it to be a dark blue-purple color. In addition, the candles used in churches are generally white. White candles represent holiness, and lighting white candles represents respect for God.

What kind of weird ritual would require lighting candles of the wrong color?

The scalding wax flowed down the candles, but the believers seemed to be completely unaware of it, their faces were numb and expressionless.

I felt a chill down my spine.

This chill came from the gaze from behind. Then, Feng Qingyu turned around and met a pair of cloudy, bloodshot eyes.

The eyes were on a face that was as wrinkled as a dead tree, with sunken eye sockets and eyeballs that seemed like they would burst at any time.

The face of an old woman from Liberi.

The old woman's eyes suddenly widened even wider, and she raised the cane in her hand and hit Feng Qingyu, cursing at her.

"Unknown foreigner...get away..."

6. Weird Town

The old woman of Liberia had hands that were like rotten dead wood and dry, wrinkled skin, very much like the murderous old witch in a dark fairy tale.

That dead wood crutch could also be compared to a spellcasting staff, because it really does look like one.

Feng Qingyu failed to block the first blow and was hit hard, causing severe pain in her left shoulder. When the old woman was about to hit her for the second time, she finally caught the other party's intention to attack and drew her sword to block.

The wooden crutch was no match for the well-made sword and was immediately cut off, thrown out and rolled down the church steps.

Seeing this, the old woman looked horrified and started cursing in a hoarse voice, pointing a half-broken cane at her nose.

"Damn devil... do you want to kill me? Seventy years ago, you failed to kill me... now you are coming to kill me, right? *Victoria swears*"

"What the hell?"

Feng Qingyu's temper was not very bad, but he was suddenly hit with a club, so he must be unhappy. Moreover, this old woman did not know how to control the severity of the beating and wanted to beat him to death.

If he was hit on the forehead again, it would not be as simple as bleeding or suffering minor injuries. He might suffer a concussion or suddenly faint. Then, he might be beaten to death by the old woman.

Even if a mentally ill person kills someone, it is not against the law. At most, he will be sent to a mental hospital for a period of time and then released. This is very unfair to the person who has been harmed.

The old woman and she were in a stalemate at the church door, and the other party kept cursing, saying something weird like "the devil is reviving".

She didn't dare let her guard down. Although she wanted to continue spying on the ceremony in the church, she was worried that a psychopath like her might emerge from the darkness, which would not be worth the risk.

It might be difficult to carry out the investigation tonight, so it would be best to wait until the old woman is away.

Just as she was about to leave the church, a pretty blonde girl from Liberia, about fifteen or sixteen years old, walked out of the prayer room next door and approached the old woman with a worried look on her face.

"Grandma, you scared me to death. I turned around and found that you were not there. What if I met a bad guy?"

Then, the girl's eyes fell on Feng Qingyu.

Obviously, she just missed everything that happened outside. No one knew that it was the old woman who started the fight first. Only the people involved knew it best.

What if the girl and the old woman called the people in the church together and falsely accused Feng Qingyu of sneaking around outside the door? The grandmother and granddaughter went forward to check and were beaten instead. The broken cane would be the evidence, and she would not be able to explain herself anyway.

The people in these villages are united, and with a large number of people they can confuse right and wrong. Such incidents have been discussed in newspapers and online forums, especially human trafficking. The remote mountain villages have poor transportation, and it is extremely difficult for people who are sold there to return to the city. The villagers cover up for each other, and those who escape will be caught again.

The more she thought about it, the more horrible it became, and she wanted to leave immediately.

The girl first tried to comfort the frightened old woman in a soft voice using Victorian slang that Feng Qingyu could not quite understand. After the old woman calmed down a little, she turned around and apologized to her.

Yes, a serious apology.

"Miss, I'm sorry, my grandma...she has some mental problems and often says weird things. Whenever she sees someone with black hair, she will beat them with her cane. Because of this, I have paid a lot of money to other people, all of whom are tourists from other countries. Sorry, miss, I talk too much. Are you injured anywhere?"

The girl from Liberi could not control herself and kept talking. Her words were full of guilt and did not sound like polite words.

Seeing this, Feng Qingyu just rubbed his painful shoulder and reminded: "Next time, keep a close eye on her and don't let her run around. Luckily she didn't hit my head. It was really scary just now. She suddenly jumped out of the woods. My heart is still trembling."

"I'm sorry, I promise I will take good care of grandma, please don't be angry."

The girl lowered her head again, bowed, took out the little cash left in her pocket, and stuffed it all into Feng Qingyu's hands.

The crumpled banknotes were mostly small change, with few large denominations, and the largest denomination was only 100 yuan. A rough estimate showed that the total amount of money was only over 200 yuan, not more than 300 yuan.

The clothes the grandparents wore were rather worn out, with traces of whitening from washing. When she stuffed the money into his pocket, the girl's hands briefly touched Feng Qingyu's, and her fingertips and palms were very rough, obviously the hands of someone who often did hard labor.

The rough areas were covered with a thick layer of calluses from day-to-day labor. It was impossible for a girl from a wealthy family to have such rough hands.

The banknotes in my hand suddenly felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

Feng Qingyu's original intention was not to extort money, but now it really feels like he is trying to extort money.

"You can take this money back and don't have to pay me back. But... you have to answer some questions for me as compensation for your grandma beating me up."

"..."

The girl hesitated, her eyes jumping between Feng Qingyu's face and hands. The need for money overcame her hesitation, and she took the crumpled change and stuffed it back into her almost torn pocket.

"Then... meet at the Killer Whale Restaurant in the nearby town of Manheim in half an hour. It's very close to here, only ten minutes' walk away."

"I hope you won't stand me up."

"Of course not! Miss, I'll take grandma home first, see you later."

Although the old woman from Liberi did not continue to attack anyone, she was muttering something unclear, like a spell, and occasionally looked back with an almost hawk-like gaze.

That look was like the look of someone looking at something unlucky and dirty.

"Tsk, that's really uncomfortable."

Feng Qingyu no longer looked at the direction where the old woman and the Liberi girl left, and suddenly lost interest in the ceremony held in the church. He took a few random photos with his camera as a souvenir and left quickly.

The cement road around the church has very primitive road signs - made of long wooden strips with the name of the place engraved in the middle and then traced in black ink.

The road sign is already very worn out and the font on it has faded severely. It will be unrecognizable after a while, but now I can still barely make out the font.

1.8 kilometers ahead is the town of Mannheim where the girl had an appointment to meet. Most of the workers in the nearby factories come from here.

The town is far away from the central urban area of ​​Victoria and transportation is inconvenient. The townspeople's source of income is basically from nearby factories, or by selling their own products to the city.

The architectural style here is quite classical, and seems to be several eras away from the forest of steel and concrete in the Victorian city. Wooden buildings can be seen everywhere, and there are not many houses built with modern building materials. It seems to be something that only rich people can enjoy.

The town of Manheim is a relatively well-known poor town in the County of Toronto. The government's construction plans basically do not visit here, and the townspeople are accustomed to a semi-isolated life and rarely have the idea of ​​changing the status quo.

Feng Qingyu sat down on a bench by the roadside, opened the pull ring of the can of coffee, and took the opportunity to look at the townspeople passing by.

The whole town was dead, not just the things but the people as well.

7. Killer Whale

Opposite the bench is the Killer Whale Restaurant, whose sign is a giant killer whale. It is said that the store manager is a beautiful Agor woman who looks young, but her age...

The lady’s age could not be further explored. Feng Qingyu could see busy figures behind the bar through the glass.

The Agor woman has long navy blue hair, pale skin, a pair of burgundy eyes, and wears a retro black dress with a fluttering hem, making her look like a beauty from a classical oil painting.

The restaurant is doing good business and most of the seats are occupied.

Now she was not too hungry, so she wanted to smoke two cigarettes outside and rest for a while to observe the situation in the town. As she had thought just now, the atmosphere in the town was very strange, just like the old woman in Liberi, there was nothing normal about her from head to toe.

The housekeeper only mentioned it once, and told her not to wander around here if she had nothing to do. The people in this town were not kind and were very unfriendly to outsiders, especially the elderly.

Many young people couldn't stand the town's atmosphere and left early to live in the city, and never came back.

Indeed, such a shabby town seems very lonely compared to the wonderful world outside, like two plates, one with dry, hard and moldy bread, and the other with soft and sweet cream cake.

No one would eat dry bread when they could have cake without spending too much money.

The small town is dry bread and the city is cake. Young people all rush to the big cities to divide the cake, leaving only the bread that no one cares about.

The townspeople passing by looked at her with caution, because her dress and appearance were no different from those of the people in the town. Moreover, the town was not large and every household knew each other.

Once a stranger appears in a familiar place, people will naturally show high vigilance and rejection.

No one likes to be stared at like a monster, so Feng Qingyu chose to ignore them and not make eye contact with them. After the Liberi girl told him everything she wanted to know, she probably wouldn't come next time.

At 15 minutes past eight, the girl from Liberi came hurriedly from the other side of the street, having changed into casual clothes. Her style was obviously different from that of other people in the town, with a T-shirt and hoodie on the upper body, and hot pants and short boots on the lower body, all of which were new styles in the city.

The things there are not expensive, and their taste and fashion are much better than those of the women in town.

If I remember correctly, the clothes should be a discount item bought at Yishishan. Yishishan has branches all over Terra, and Victoria is no exception.

Feng Qingyu mentally approved of the girl's appearance.

The girl wanted to ask why she didn't go into the restaurant but sat outside to smoke. But when she saw the "No Smoking" sign at the entrance of the restaurant, she realized that her question was unnecessary.

The townspeople often complained that she looked like a duck because ducks always quacked.

"Miss... Sorry for the long wait. Do you want to come in?"

"Hold on."

After extinguishing the remaining half of the cigarette butt and throwing it into the trash can next to him, Feng Qingyu stood up and stretched as a preparation.

Then, the two walked into the restaurant together.

As soon as I stepped into the restaurant, everyone who was dining in the restaurant looked at me with confusion, resistance, and perhaps a little boredom.

An outsider, plus the peculiar girl in the town, such a special combination is hard not to attract attention.

The girl from Liberia was already used to being stared at like that, and she didn't care about the looks of those guys at all. She sat down in the corner as usual.

There is a menu on the table. It is thicker than an ordinary student notebook and the cover is a little torn, but it does not affect the mood of ordering.

The cuisine in Victoria is not as rich as that in Yan Country, and the food cooked by the family chef, Master Wu, is excellent and comparable to that of Michelin chefs, so the food in the small town restaurant naturally becomes less attractive.